Pure Experiences

The Sunday Q&A #01

Is enlightenment instantaneous, or is it gradual? Which practice will lead to enlightenment? How to be the witness and remain as non-doer? Is there a supreme doer? What happens when I let go of doership and ownership? Lets discuss these questions.

Happiness and Freedom (Remastered)

There is often this question that, given our current existence as a human being with a body and a mind, what one should do? In other words how to live this human life? Most of us blindly follow what others are doing, or whatever we were told to do, resulting in a less than optimal experience. We will see that the goal has been already set for you, and it is - Happiness and Freedom. No matter what you do, you end up choosing an action that leads to happiness and freedom. We are incapable of choosing anything else. We will discuss about how to achieve this effortlessly and practically. (This is a remastered and edited version of an earlier podcast).

Supernatural influences on the mind

The individual mind, although it appears to be segregated, resides in a sea of minds, all present right here and right now. It is always influencing other minds and is being influenced by them. Supernatural influences are the ones, where the source is nonphysical. Its always our own tendencies that allow, other minds to influence us. Since a mind cannot remain unaffected by influences, it is useful to know which influences are beneficial for us, and which ones are not.

Parasitic Beliefs

Beliefs are assumptions, ideas not founded on the evidence gained via direct experience or logic. Beliefs lead to suffering, for they are just ignorance. They can be difficult to get rid of, they are parasitic. A gyani must always keep his guard up against blind beliefs. Not knowing is of more value than knowing.

Renunciation

Renunciation is not about forcing yourself to get rid of everything you own, it is simply a realization that I never owned anything, there is nothing to own, there is no me to possess anything. And the Self is not concerned with owning or disowning, it is forever free, the owner and the owned are illusory ephemeral expressions of the Self.

Dissemination of knowledge

Sharing of knowledge and information is a natural human tendency. Whatever knowledge we have is a gift from someone else, and so it feels the right thing to do, to give it away. However, it is not so easy, there are pitfalls and consequences. What happens when you try to share your knowledge, especially, spiritual knowledge, among people? Who is ready or worthy of receiving spiritual teachings? What are the do's and don'ts in this matter? How to effectively disseminate the knowledge for other's benefit, and your own pleasure?

Link to mentioned article

Judgment and Evaluation of Minds: Part-3

In this part on the topic of evaluation of minds, we discuss the higher layers of the mind - the intellect, spiritual and liberated layers. We see that not only they are very interesting, but are also very complex and very rare. In conclusion, some cautions are mentioned and further actions are recommended.

Link to the summary and animation

Judgment and Evaluation of Minds: Part-2

In the part 2, of the talk on judgement and evaluation of the mind, we study the 3rd and 4th layers of the mind, which are connected, respectively, with tribal and emotional behaviours, speech and thoughts. We can also see some major afflictions of these layers.

Link to the summary and animation

Judgment and Evaluation of Minds: Part-1

Evaluation of one's current status of evolution, is essential for rapid progress. It is possible to do so, both for the self and for others. While judging others, it must be kept in the mind that, the resulting action must be such, that it corrects your own behaviour instead of correcting others. In this part we discuss the basics such as, what is judgment, how to evaluate a mind, what criteria to use, is it moral to do so, etc. We also study the animalistic and hedonistic minds in this part of the talk.

Link to the animation.

The Illusion of Cause and Effect

Causality is just an idea, a concept, a creation of the mind. Cause and effect apply in a tiny area of the Ego and are related to survival. Cause and effect do not provide a convincing explanation for the reality or for our own direct experiences. Why does it seem like there are causes for events and there are effects of them? How does the mind create causation? If not in terms of cause and effect, how else can we understand this continuous change we call the experience?

Attention, Reflection and Intelligence: Part 2

Attention, Reflection and Intelligence are three essential abilities that a seeker on the path of knowledge must sharpen in order to progress rapidly. These abilities when operating optimally can result in enormous success in material life also. How to improve these abilities? What can be done, and what to avoid in order to maximize them? We will share some tips and experiences in this meeting. This is part 2 of 2.

Attention, Reflection and Intelligence: Part-1

Attention, Reflection and Intelligence are three essential abilities that a seeker on the path of knowledge must sharpen in order to progress rapidly. These abilities when operating optimally can result in enormous success in material life also. How to improve these abilities? What can be done, and what to avoid in order to maximize them? We will share some tips and experiences in this meeting.

Here is the link to animation shown in the meeting.

Acting without actions: Part-3

Forgiving is an art which when practiced, helps to release a traumatized mind from the grip of suffering. Why do minds get hurt and how to fix a badly wounded mind through the technique of forgiving? We will explore this topic in this meeting from a perspective of automated mental processes as seen by a yogi or a gyani.

Acting without actions: Part-2

We find ourselves in a physical body and in the physical world and this situation corners us and forces us to act. The only way out is via learning how to act without acting. The recommended way is to serve by acting in as non violent way as possible and to donate by hoarding as less as possible. These actions cancel out the consequences, freeing the mind from the trap of a physical body and world.

Acting without actions: Part-1

An action, when performed via the agency of the mind, is always egocentric. Identification with the mind and its structures is the cause of ignorance that one action is good and other is bad, one is service and other is an selfish act. Anyhow, service is a practice that can free a mind trapped in such delusions. Via service, the ownership or identity shifts from an individual, to the whole. This is essentially the path of action. Other techniques are donation and forgiving. In this part, we will get an overview of actions and how they are seen from the point of view of the Self and the ego.

Aspects of Surrender

As the blind beliefs and ignorance starts to fall apart piece by piece, a seeker is left in bewilderment, the false ground of flimsy assumptions and conditioning starts cracking below their feet. The most common question in such a situation is what should I do now? The only answer is - surrender. That may look like a defeat but is actually a win-win situation. How? We will reveal that in this meeting.

Balancing the material life and the spiritual life

There is no need to balance anything, because the so called material life does not exist. Until this is realized, one must struggle and make some efforts, by whatever means, and arrive at an effortless path - the direct path, or the nondual path.

Science and the path of knowledge: Part -2

Continuing from the first part on the topic, we uncover more beliefs about science and technology, and about seekers and scientists. We see that the fields of science and spirituality are mostly similar and face similar issues. The problem is gross generalizations and blaming the whole field instead of seeing that it is human nature to either advance or corrupt a field. It is wise to ignore the superficiality and focus on the goal, which is, more knowledge.

Science and the path of knowledge: Part -1

Science is a sub set of the path of knowledge. It deals with empirical knowledge mostly. There are some blind beliefs regarding what it is, how it works etc, in the minds of spiritual aspirants and ordinary people. In this talk we will clear them up, we will see the science from a bigger perspective. We find that since it is also a pursuit of knowledge, its dynamics are exactly the same as those of spiritual paths.

Universal Mind: Advanced Techniques

Continuing from our previous meeting on the topic, we will explore some advanced techniques for exploring the universal mind. See their advantages or disadvantages, and their implications on the life of a practitioner of these techniques. We will see what pitfalls are there on this path of techniques, and what is the real purpose of taking them up.

The links shared in this meeting are following:

Phase evolution

Reality is projection

Principles of Astral Projection

Memories

Kundalini for Gyanis: Self evaluation and aware evolution

Continuing the talk on Kundalini and the path of knowledge. In this part an easy way to evaluate your level of evolution is suggested and some solutions are offered in order to clear the blockages and speed up the evolution of the mind without actually getting involved in any energetic practices whatsoever.

Kundalini for Gyanis: The easy and natural way

Continuing the talk on Kundalini and the path of knowledge. In this part we see that the evolution of the mind is a necessity, it happens independently of the path one is on. Any spiritual path will result in acceleration of evolution. We see that we cannot simply avoid it, and we cannot remain inactive. Evolution is speeded up on the path of knowledge too and we can assist in a few ways as going backwards is not desirable, we can consciously prevent going backwords. Moreover we can adopt a simple lifestyle where we favour an evolved behaviour over habitual behaviour. Some more aspects of this topic are also discussed.

Teachings of Gurdjieff

In this meeting some of the key teachings of the great philosopher Gurdjieff were discussed, like, the psychology of Man's possible evolution. Is a Man conscious? Can a Man achieve consciousness? And, what are the hallmarks of a Man who is conscious.

Kundalini and path of knowledge

Kundalini is mostly mysterious and magical, and therefore, the logical and rational mind of a seeker on the path of knowledge does not find this concept very useful. We tend to discard it, but it is possible to understand Kundalini as a model of the evolutionary processes of the mind and benefit from it. In this meeting we will speculate on such possibility.

Fear of Death

Fear of death is a universal fear. Almost everyone is afflicted with it, including many seekers. In this talk, we analyze it. We find that this fear has more complicated reasons other than simply a fear of disappearance of the body. We can classify them as pre-death and post-death fears. Once we know what they are, we can try out some solutions for them. We do not want to get rid of the fear of death completely, we only ensure that it is seen for what it is, as an illusion, and ensure that it does not become a cause of suffering. Death is a necessity, but excessive fear of it is optional.